In the beginning of August 2018 ANP started a new cycle within the project of “Dealing with the Past in Kosovo”. From 30th September until 6th October 16 participants from all over Kosovo successfully completed seven days of training for Dealing with the Past (DwP). The participants were selected, based on defined criteria: age from 21 and up, motivation to work on DwP, gender balance, diverse communities, different professional background, and from different places of Kosovo. The heterogenic group has started a deep, emotional and very hard process of dealing with their personal fates and pain they experienced in the past.

During the first part of the training, participants were actively working on topics of nonviolent communication, teamwork, understanding conflict, prejudices and the role of gender in society. After successfully elaborating on the above mentioned topics in active group work-sessions and discussions, it was dealt with the DwP process in Germany after the Second World War. As the ANP trainers formed a “safe space” during the first days and the group built up trust, ANP was enabled to start working with DwP topics in Kosovo.

In the second part of the training the participants had the chance to learn a lot about the DwP process and as well open the discussion about burned issues. Beside the interactive workshops on the topic for DwP, participants used creative methods, like painting, to express their stories and memories from the past in an indirect and abstract way. Everyone in the training was overwhelmed by the empathy that appears when listening to the emotional experiences of the others.

At the end of the training the group discussed how they would like to document the past and especially their private and personal stories, to foster a civil narrative. The ANP trainer team received very positive feedback for the applied methods, the design of the training, the chosen venue and the selection process. Therefore the participants expressed great motivation to further be part in the project and to document their stories.

Immediately after the training the ANP team started to individually meet the participants to further develop the stories of the participants and find the right form of publishing these life stories. The ANP team is providing full support to the individuals to develop and write their life stories. However, the participants have the final say in regard to content that they would like to share with the wide audience.

Therefore, ANP feels very satisfied to have started the new cycle with a motivated group of people that is currently contributing to the reduction of the ethnocentric narratives which continues to be dominant in Kosovo. ANP is looking forward very much to intensify the work with the current group and support the participants with their contribution to achieve sustainable peace.

ANP had the great opportunity to professionally video-record personal stories from the participants of the “Dealing with the Past” project. The video is a great collection of sad and emotional personal stories. The stories are from different communities, from places all over Kosovo and took place between the end of the 19th century and today. Problems of the war of 1998 – 1999 play a central role in most of the people’s stories. The stories are connected, not directly, not palpable but connected. The composition of these different stories is a great and important contribution to the “Dealing with the Past Process” of Kosovo.

You are invited to attend the documentary film premiere and opening the exhibition “Time Links”. The documentary film and exhibition contains stories from the past of our participants of the project Dealing with the Past in Kosovo carried out by Action for Nonviolence and Peacebuilding (ANP) and Kurve Wustrow from Germany.

The exhibition will be open on Wednesday, April 26th and will remain on view until 28th of April.